Louis Shelby: A 78 Record, Two Nightclubs, and the Shelby Legacy in Los Angeles
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| Louis Shelby, c.1964. |
At Midwest Mahjar we’ve written about both the Boston and Los Angeles Arab American music scene. We’ve explored the 78 RPM Arabic music merchant Gabriel S. Maloof, Anton Abdelahad, Ramza Abdelahad, Tony Tawa, Ronnie Kirby, and a host of other Arab Americans in Beantown’s late nineteenth and early twentieth century history. Two thousand nine hundred eighty-two miles across the United States pioneering Arab American musicians like Constantine Souss, Andrew Mekanna, Hanna Wakeen, Joseph Moshay, Johnny Barakat, Elias Abourjaily, and Saadoun Al-Bayati recorded on a host of west coast record labels and travelled the West Coast mahrajan circuit.
Syrians in Massachusetts held one of the earliest mahrajans in the United States in 1932. Within three years, the Brockton, Massachusetts mahrajan drew 6000 attendees to a weekend dance, music, socializing, match-making, reunions, and general celebration. Meanwhile, Syrians in Los Angeles hosted one of the earliest West Coast mahrajans near Van Nuys in 1933. Some 5000 people attended the Van Nuys/Los Angeles mahrajan the following year reflecting the growing popularity of such events even during the Great Depression. Among the noted guests at the 1934 mahrajan was Los Angeles mayor Frank L.Shaw. Just as they had on the east coast, the mahrajan increasingly gave way to the Arab American supper club or nightclub by the mid to late 1950s. It’s not that the mahrajan wholly disappeared but in larger Arab American communities across the United States supper clubs served as an emerging venue for the combination of Arab American music, food, socializing, and revenue for musicians and cooks. One of the first Arab American supper clubs on the west coast and in Los Angeles was owned and operated by brothers Farid and Elias Shelaby better known as Fred Shelby and Louis George Shelby.
The fourth of five children born to Mantoura “Mary Elise” Thebshrany and George H. Shelby, who wed in Boston on 14 November 1914, Louis Shelby entered the world on 22 July 1925. Together the Shelbys had Madeline, Rosaleen, Elizabeth, Louis, and Fred, and resided at 4 Asylum Street. George worked as a harness maker and general laborer. When at home George could be heard singing the songs of Elia Baida. Baida quickly became one of Louis’ favorite musicians. Louis attended and graduated from Abraham Lincoln School and Roxbury High School. His serious introduction to Arabic music came listening to Arabic 78 rpm records in the Arab American coffeehouses in Boston preceding the advent of Arab American nightclubs. At the same time, Fred Shelby was born 15 April 1930 in Boston where he attended Holy Trinity and graduated from English High School around 1948.
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| Louis George Shelby's WW II draft card. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
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| Fred G. Shelby, 1948. English High School yearbook, Boston. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
Piano became Shelby’s first instrument of choice and, in addition to Elia Baida, he was likely influenced by the compositions and recordings of well-known Arab American musician Alexander Maloof. Frustrated by his inability to hear and play the quarter tones essential to Arabic music, Louis switched to playing violin. His growing proficiency on the violin seemed impressive but this was not enough to impress his parents who saw no future in music and entertainment. Consequently, Shelby worked as a hairdresser and played at the occasional hafla on the weekends. He moved to California in 1949. Younger brother Fred and their parents soon joined him.
Circa 1949, Louis recorded his only known 78 rpm record on his own Abphon record label. He and his ensemble recorded two sides. We don’t know the exact lineup of musicians on this recording but we really get an idea of how talented a violinist Louis was. Growing up in Boston, Louis would have certainly heard Philip Solomon, the regular accompanist of Anton Abdelahad. Louis also had the opportunity to meet legendary violinist Sami al Shawwa during Sami’s 1955 US visit. It's very much possible, Louis Shelby appeared on other 78s, but we have not specifically identified other phonograph records on which his name explicitly appears.
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| Louis Shelby & His Orchestra, "Near East Romance," https://youtu.be/OOUDTq7lovo Louis Shelby & His Orchestra, "Pashraf Asim Bey," https://youtu.be/6OKHbqC--DM Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. |
The year after the release of his first two singles, Louis was in a terribly serious car crash on his way to look at a prospective hair salon in Oxnard, California. The accident left his right arm paralyzed. Initially unable to continue playing violin, after years of rehabilitative therapy, Louis managed to gain enough strength in his right shoulder to play if he attached the bow to his hand with a rubberband. He also played the riqq or tambourine but his career as a hairdresser was over.
Despite this setback, Louis Shelby continued on with his education and enrolled in several colleges while earning money as a musician. The nationwide hafla and mahrajan scene entered its twentieth year, while back in the town of Louis’ birth, a Lebanese American couple opened Club Zara in 1952 at 475 Tremont Street. It and Club Khiam at Appleton and Tremont streets were Boston’s first Arab American supper clubs. In August 1953, Louis accompanied Arnold Raheb and Mary Samaha as entertainment for the gathering following the “Feast of Saint Anne” at Saint Anne’s Melkite Church in Los Angeles. On June 20, 1954, Louis, the Hanna brothers, George Sabbagh, backed Julia Hanna and her dancers at the Father’s Day hafla at Saint Anne’s. Although he attended the American University of Beirut and University of California Berkeley, he did not graduate from either. During his time in Beirut, Louis managed to travel to Cairo, Egypt, to see Om Kalthum in a live performance. It remained a highlight of his life. With his return to Los Angeles in 1955 and graduation from University of California Los Angeles with a degree in Political Science, Louis took a job for the County of Los Angeles.
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| Lou's first wife, Jesse Ann Malouf, 1948. Hoover High School yearbook. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
Beyond school, Louis married Del-Norte, Colorado-born Jessie Ann Malouff in 1957 and took growing interest in creating a full-scale supper club with Near Eastern food, music, and dancing. He and Jessie also considered starting a family. Jessie, the daughter of Philip and Virginia Malouff, was a graduate of Hoover High School and Glendale College. Friends and relatives from Boston visited the Shelby family in Los Angeles and on occasion Fred, Louis, George or Mantoura visited friends or relatives in Boston. Anne K. Rasmussen, and Amy Smith, building on Rasmussen, have researched the east coast nightclub scene quite extensively. Word has it that by 1958, at least three Middle Eastern supper clubs operated in Boston - Club Zara, Club Khiam, and El Morocco. Eighth Avenue in New York had its Greek and Armenian clubs and patrons visited supper clubs like the Egyptian Gardens, Izmir, New Byzantine, Cafe Bouzoukee, and Port Said. In Los Angeles, Louis and his Orchestra played gigs for a host of individuals and groups including the University of Southern California Arab Student Association in December 1958. Then Louis and Fred Shelby opened The Fez on Sunset Boulevard and Vermont in Hollywood on June 12, 1959. Mantoura Shelby cooked the meals on the menu. A trio of musicians, including Khamis el Fino, Mohammad El Miri, and Shiham, first entertained guests and Zanouba worked as one of the venue’s first dancers. After four years of marriage and two years after opening the Fez Supper Club, Louis and Jessie Shelby welcomed their first and only child George into the world on 14 April 1961.
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| Opening Night at the Fez!!! The Star newspaper, 31 May 1959. Courtesy of the Immigration History Research Center, Anderson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. |
Louis and Fred spent approximately $10,000 in the fall of 1961 on renovations and another few thousand dollars on hassocks and tapestries in 1964. The first set of renovations redesigned the exterior and interior of the supper club. Three years later, fifty leather-made Moroccan hassocks outfitted the Magic Carpet Room and additional hassocks, wall tapestries, and art went into Sinbad’s Cave, the lower and upstairs portion of the Fez. Louis added flags representing eighteen primarily Arabic-majority speaking countries to the outside of the supper club. One of the final touches included a gift shop near the front entrance dubbed the “Arabian Nights Bazaar.” Guests could now take home trinkets from the Fez brought from the “old country” by Louis during his travels.
The Fez became Hollywood’s premier Middle Eastern Supper Club and both Arab Americans and many of tinsel town’s brightest stars stopped by for nights and Fred’s and Louis’ place. On the ground floor guests dined and were entertained in the “Magic Carpet Room.” Upstairs was “Sinbad’s Cave”. Well-known diners included Kim Novak, Jayne Mansfield, William Shatner, Danny Thomas, Robert Lansing Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Marlon Brando, and Peter Lawford. Among international celebrities who dined at the Fez were Monique van Vooren, Greta Thyssen, Maurice Dallimore, Doris Nieh, Anna Kashfi, Ziva Rodann, Shoji Hattori, Ahna Capri, and Mariam Makeba. According to Louis Shelby approximately seventy percent of customers were non-Middle Easterners and thirty percent were Arabs, Turks, Kurds, Iranians, and Armenians. Several dancers and musicians launched their careers with guidance from Fred and Louis Shelby and locally, regionally, and nationally-known personalities performed at the Fez.
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| Louis Shelby, Rosemary Thomas, Danny Thomas, and Fred Shelby at the Fez. The Star newspaper, 20 January 1963. Courtesy of the Immigration History Research Center, Anderson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. |
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| Danny Thomas, Louis Shelby, and band members at the Fez. The Star newspaper, 20 January 1963. Courtesy of the Immigration History Research Center, Anderson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. |
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Danny Thomas, Mantoura Shelby, and Rosemary Thomas. The Star newspaper, 20 January 1963. Courtesy of the Immigration History Research Center, Anderson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. |
Toufic Barham, Saadoun Al-Bayati, Abdel Sirhan, and Maroun Saba regularly performed at the Fez and Lou and Fred came to know and connect with Fadwa Abeid, Amer Kadaj, Joe Budway, Kahraman, and Odette Kaddo. Regular dancers included Antoinette Awayshak, Zanouba Stepanous, Aisha Ali, Cozette [Hunter], Maya Medwar, Helena Vlahos, Feiruz Aram, and Jamila Salimpour. We know most of the names connected to West Coast Arabic music and Middle Eastern dance thanks to the Shelby legacy.
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| George Hanna, Fadwa Abeid, and Louis Shelby. The Star newspaper, 30 April 1959. Courtesy of the Immigration History Research Center, Anderson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. |
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| Zanouba Stepanous and Aisha Ali. The Star newspaper, 30 April 1959. Courtesy of the Immigration History Research Center, Anderson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. |
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Jamila Salimpour, Cozette Hunter, and Antoinette Awayshak.
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Beyond being just a businessman, Louis Shelby took great pride in academic and intellectual currents in Arabic music and Middle Eastern dance. Via his interview with former dancer, Jamila Salimpour, we know Shelby grew critical of the commercialization of Arabic music and culture. The Fez was not just a business but a cultural center and Shelby’s classroom where he imparted advice, knowledge, wisdom, and life lessons to younger musicians, dancers, guests, and friends. With Jamila Samlimpour, Shelby shared his ideas on the passing of the torch from Mohammed Abdul Wahab to Avdel Halim Hafiz instead of Wadi El-Safi as a missed opportunity to raise Arabic music to a higher plateau of appreciation and expertise. He scoffed at the term “belly dance” noting its origins as folk dance present in rural villages in Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and other countries long before its ebb and flow in United States popular culture in the 1890s and late 1950s and 1960s or its popularity in Egypt in the 1920s. There was lots more leg work than emphasis on the hips. Moreover, Shelby lamented the devaluing of the performance arts especially music and dance in the Middle East. While quite erudite and vastly knowledgeable about Arabic poetry, lexicography, and vocalization, he deferred to UCLA musicologist Ali Jihad Racy as an experienced scholar on the area.
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| Toufic Barham plays the Fez. The Star newspaper, December 1964. Courtesy of the Immigration History Research Center, Anderson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. |
For all the success the Fez brought, Louis and Jessie struggled in their marriage. By 1965, the couple had divorced and Jessie married Richard Coate. Within a few more years, Louis married Edna Roccatto on 10 November 1968. Edna had been born in Campinas, San Paulo, Brazil in 1938. She interviewed for Pan American Airways in 1964 and moved to Miami, Florida. From January 1965 to 1968, Edna worked as a flight attendant for Pan Am Airways.
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| Edna Roccatto, Pan Am flight attendant, 1965-1968. Courtesy of Roxxanne Shelaby Allessandro. |
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| Louis & Edna Shelby on their wedding day. 1968. Courtesy of Roxxanne Shelaby Allessandro. |
Fred Shelby also married during this time to Amal Tabchrani an immigrant from Qabb Illyas, Lebanon. Fred, who staffed the bar, ran the business side of the Fez, and sometimes accompanied both regular and guest musicians on drums, handled those things at which he was best. Louis worked with and hired musicians, dancers, promoted and marketed the Fez, and sang, played violin, and tambourine as needed.
Several Fez employees found themselves in the center of controversy in June 1968 when Sirhan Sirhan assassinated former attorney general and US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The Sirhan family immigrated to the United States from Jerusalem, Palestine, around 1957 as citizens of Jordan. After a brief stay in New York City, the family settled in Los Angeles. Mary and Bishara Sirhan had Saidallah (b. 1932), Sharief (b. 1933), Ayda (b. 1936), Adel (b. 1938), Sirhan (b. 1944), and Munir (b. 1947). One of the Sirhan’s other sons had been killed when run over by a military truck. The FBI interviewed eight people connected to the Fez outside of Abdel Sirhan and members of the Sirhan family during the course of their investigation - Fez owners Louis and Fred Shelby, assistant manager Zareh Boujigian, former manager Mike Siam, regular customers Jamila Sellem and Joyce Stone, dancer Elsa Butler (known as Feiruz Aram), part-time dancer and waitress Phyllis Young. Although Adel Shirhan worked at the Fez from 1 January 1961 until June 1967, Sirhan Sirhan had visited the Fez two or three times at the most. Sharief Sirhan had frequented the Fez more frequently but still every once in a while. Polite, party-going, and hardworking best described Adel Sirhan, while Sherief occasionally talked politics with others in Sinbad’s Cave. Sirhan Sirhan was by far the most politically vocal of the family and according to Louis Shelby “frustrated,” “confused, idealistic, and somewhat left-wing.” It turned out to be the longest and last interpersonal interaction between Shelby and Sirhan.
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| Adel Sirhan, 1964. |
| The Star newspaper, 30 August1964. Courtesy of the Immigration History Research Center, Anderson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. |
The association of the Fez with Sirhan Sirhan’s murder of Robert Kennedy, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and anti-Americanism meant harassment for the Fez, its owners, and its employees for a time. There were threats, federal and local law enforcement followed and surveilled employees, and for a time, according to Louis’ son, George, Louis armed himself to ward off threats.
The 1970s brought with it lots of change for the Fez and for Louis and Fred. Louis and Edna had Roxanne in 1970. They sold the Fez to Maroun Saba by the time Christopher was born in 1974. Edna climbed the career ladder from receptionist in 1972 in the Brazilian Consulate in Los Angeles to Senior Trade Officer in the Office of Trade Promotion for the Consulate General of Brazil. To aid in her professional advancement, she took international business courses at UCLA. Louis sold real estate via Gribin Von Dyl Realtors' Reseda and toured the Southwest mahrajan, and hafla circuit. He played Ladies Society of Saint George Orthodox Church of El Paso hafla on 13 October and Al Anor Club in Albuquerque along with Chick Kahla, George Hanna, including Aurette Ghoulam (Loretta Chaloum) as an accompanying dancer on 14 October 1973.
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| Maroun Saba. |
| The Star newspaper, 30 August1964. Courtesy of the Immigration History Research Center, Anderson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. |
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| Maroun Saba, Fahed Ballan, plus Abboud Abdel and His Orchestra recorded "Live from the Fez" on LP in 1972 on The Fez label. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection. |
After selling the Fez and before Louis opened another club, Fred and Amal had their only child, Mantoura in 1975. She was named for Fred and Louis’ mother, Mantoura, whose food fed Fez customers for nearly all of the club’s run. Although it never had the reputation or the aura associated with the Fez, Louis opened the Cascades Supper Club in 1976. Husny Zaim worked as Lou's partner briefly before Lou wholly owned Cascades. Sources make it much more difficult to track the history of the Cascades but it was in Anaheim, just south of Disneyland at 2125 S. Harbor, and had previous owners. The menu remained Middle Eastern and the tradition of live music and dancers continued until 1983. Ironically, Fred unexpectedly died in April 1983. He had not been business partners with Louis at the Cascades as he had at The Fez.
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| Anaheim Bulletin, August 13, 1976. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
In 1977, when dancers founded the Middle Eastern Cabaret Dancers Association as a collective bargaining and workers’ rights union to address the need for better pay, safer, more professional, and harassment-free working environments and conditions, Louis Shelby was one of approximately two club owners who supported the workers. Like waiting tables, professional dancers were mostly young women. Those who aspired to be professional dancers, dancer instructors, and college students with previous formal dance training supported themselves and pursued their educational goals dancing at supper clubs and bars throughout Los Angeles, the west coast, and the United States. With the backing of MECDA, dancers demanded hourly or nightly wages instead of just tips as pay, larger and proper dressing rooms with mirrors and doors that locked, and better overall treatment and work conditions. As time progressed, the Middle Eastern Cabaret Dancers Association became the Middle Eastern Culture Dancers Association in the 1980s. The group’s mission shifted to “edutainment” - education, entertainment, and communication and less on labor rights. Beyond the general scope of this blog - THE GILDED SERPENT and SUHAILA INTERNATIONAL are extraordinary resources and websites about Middle Eastern dance readers should visit.
An entrepreneur, businessman, musician, and cultural ambassador who valued education, it should come as no surprise that Lou’s children graduated from college and have worked in entertainment or education. Within a year or two of Lou’s run at the Cascades ending, Lou’s eldest son, George, a recent graduate of Monroe High School in Sepulveda/North Hills portion of Los Angeles, bought his first Yamaha saxophone after years playing in high school band under the instruction of Roy Porter Sound Machine saxophonist Charlemagne Payne, Jr. George sharpened his saxophone skills under Claude Lackey, Bill Green, and Ernie Watts and attended California State University University, Northridge. He played at Alan’s Supper Club in Arcadia in the 1980s, former the George Shelby quartet performing at Speghettinis in the 1990s, the Artvark Cafe in Santa Cruz with Daniel Ho in the early 2000s. Lou’s middle child, and only daughter, Roxxanne took interest in dancing and education. Roxxanne started dancing in 1975 and began her professional Middle Eastern dance career in 1986. By 1988, she graduated from Brea Olinda High School and graduated with a degree in Spanish from California State University Fullerton. Ironically, Lou was not thrilled his daughter chose to dance professionally, but her pride in Middle Eastern expressive culture and her deep intellectual understanding of dance’s cultural relevance impressed him. Following in his sister’s footsteps, Christopher, a scholar/athlete, graduated from Brea Olinda in 1992 and went on to earn a Television/Film degree from Cal State Fullerton. No doubt, Lou Shelby was proud of who his children had become.
On a temperate September Friday in 2001, Louis G. Shelby died in southern California. He was 76 years old. His obituary in the Los Angeles Times was brief but mentioned his past ownership of the Fez and Cascades. Only those who had worked at or once visited the Fez could grasp the enormity of the passing of this Los Angeles area icon.
Today, his legacy lives on. His children have their own families and impressive careers. Many of the dancers and musicians who entertained at the Fez have passed on or are nearing retirement, but have passed the torch to their children or the many students they’ve taught and mentored. George Shelby has backed Bobby Caldwell, Phil Collins, Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Sheena Easton, and Michael McDonald, to name a few. In 2015, educator and dancer Roxxanne Shelaby, Lou Shelby’s daughter, directed and produced an award-winning documentary The Fez, about her father, the Fez Supper Club, and the musicians and dancers who made the iconic night spot Hollywood’s place to be.
Special thanks to Roxxanne Shelaby Allessandro.
Richard M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
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